Thai policeman disappears with colleagues’ reward money

Bangkok, Jan 9 (DPA) A Thai traffic cop has disappeared with his colleagues’ reward money due for bagging traffic offenders, news reports said Friday.Scores of policemen in the northern city of Chiang Mai filed a complaint that Sergeant-Major Thanawat Sinpieng, 47, had disappeared along with his family and a 1.2 million baht ($35,000) bounty for catching traffic violators.

Thanawat had previously been assigned several times to collect reward money from a local bank for distribution to about 150 of his colleagues.

But his friends in the police became suspicious when he failed to return from the bank Dec 29, said the Nation newspaper.